The present disclosure relates to an interchangeable cylinder system for furniture locks The interchangeable cylinder system includes a cylinder housing, a lock cylinder configured to be inserted into and withdrawn from the cylinder housing from a face side of the cylinder housing, and the lock cylinder is further configured to be twisted about a longitudinal axis of the lock cylinder and the cylinder housing between an opening position and a closing position in the cylinder housing. The lock cylinder includes a collar which protrudes radially with respect to the longitudinal axis and beyond a jacket surface of the lock cylinder. The lock cylinder further includes an opening into which an unlocking element is configured to be inserted. The jacket surface includes an annular groove into which a locking element engages to secure the lock cylinder in the cylinder housing. An axial stop is integrally attached in an interior of the cylinder housing and through which stop a base region of the locking cylinder extends, which base region is remote from the collar.
A generic interchangeable cylinder system is known, for example, from DE 36 03 655 A1. Such interchangeable cylinder systems substantially consist of a cylinder housing and a lock cylinder which can be inserted into the cylinder housing and is exchangeably held in the cylinder housing and is rotationally adjustable between an opening and a closing position by a key that fits into the lock cylinder. The axial fixing of the lock cylinder in the cylinder housing occurs in such case by a leaf spring which is placed into a channel provided axially in the jacket surface of the cylinder housing and protrudes with one end into an annular groove in the jacket surface of the lock cylinder and thereby prevents the lock cylinder from being pulled out of the cylinder housing. For the purpose of removing the lock cylinder from the cylinder housing, an opening is provided on a collar of the lock cylinder which impinges on a face side of the cylinder housing and through which a wire pin is inserted into the channel between the lock cylinder and the cylinder housing which presses the leaf spring out of the groove by inserting the wire pin into the channel. This can only be achieved with much difficulty as a result of the freedom of movement of the leaf spring in the channel between the lock cylinder and the cylinder housing.
It is further disadvantageous that, in principle, any wire pin which can be inserted into the opening in the face side of the lock cylinder is able to press the leaf spring out of the groove in the lock cylinder in order to enable the removal of the lock cylinder from the cylinder housing.
Embodiments of the present disclosure, however, provide for an interchangeable cylinder system for furniture locks in such a way that unlocking of the lock cylinder from the cylinder housing can be performed in a simpler and operationally more reliable manner and the holding function of the locking is improved further.
The embodiments of the present disclosure thus provide for an interchangeable cylinder system that includes a cylinder housing, a lock cylinder configured to be inserted into and withdrawn from the cylinder housing from a face side of the cylinder housing, and the lock cylinder is further configured to be twisted about a longitudinal axis of the lock cylinder and the cylinder housing between an opening position and a closing position in the cylinder housing. The lock cylinder includes a collar which protrudes radially with respect to the longitudinal axis and beyond a jacket surface of the lock cylinder. The lock cylinder further includes an opening into which an unlocking element is configured to be inserted. The jacket surface includes an annular groove into which a locking element engages to secure the lock cylinder in the cylinder housing. An axial stop is integrally attached in an interior of the cylinder housing and through which stop a base region of the locking cylinder extends, which base region is remote from the collar. The locking element encloses a jacket of the lock cylinder and rests in a recess provided on a side of the axial stop which faces away from the collar. The locking element is held in a spring-loaded manner in a locked position and engages in the annular groove. The locking element is displaceable by an unlocking element against a force of a spring out of the annular groove into a release position in which the lock cylinder is removable from the cylinder housing.
Thus, accordance with the present disclosure, the locking element that locks the lock cylinder in the cylinder housing is arranged as a platelet enclosing the jacket of the lock cylinder. The platelet rests in a recess of the collar on the opposite side of an axial stop of the cylinder housing. The locking element is held in a spring-loaded manner in a locked position engaging into an annular groove in the jacket surface of the lock cylinder and is displaceable by the unlocking element against the spring load out of the annular groove into a release position in which the lock cylinder can be removed from the cylinder housing.
Such a locking element arranged as a platelet is easy to produce, can be mounted easily on the lock cylinder and, due to the fact that it rests in a completely encapsulated manner in the cylinder housing, it offers considerably higher security than a leaf spring engaging from the outside into the groove of the cylinder core, as is the case in the aforementioned state of the art.
Embodiments according to the present disclosure are discussed herein and in the appended claims.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, the locking element includes a press-in bevel on which an associated end, that is, the tip of the unlocking element rests and displaces the locking element radially against the spring force out of the annular groove during its forward displacement for unlocking the locking element and thereby releasing the lock.
As a result, the interchangeable cylinder system is additionally protected against manipulations because the unlocking element needs to have a cross section of defined width in order to displace the locking element to a sufficiently far extent and to release the same from the engagement with the groove in the lock cylinder.
In accordance with a further embodiment according to the present disclosure, the locking element includes, for example, a sickle-shaped locking collar on its inner edge on the side radially opposite of the press-in bevel. The locking collar rests in the annular groove in the locking position of the locking element. This also contributes to the protection from an unauthorized removal of the lock cylinder because the locking collar that locks the lock cylinder cannot be reached by the unlocking element.
The outside contour of the locking element is provided with a square configuration in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The locking element is held in a spring-loaded manner in a corner on the cylinder housing, and the corners of the square locking element which are adjacent to the above-noted corner are provided with a flattened configuration as a sliding guide. The inner contour of the recess of the axial stop is formed according to the outside contour of the locking element, with the width of the inner contour of the recess corresponding to the width of the locking element plus the maximum width of the locking collar. This provides a sliding surface in the recess of the axial stop for the locking element, which permits a guided displacement of the locking element which occurs perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the locking cylinder. This is so that the axial play of the lock cylinder in the cylinder housing required for unlocking the lock cylinder is reduced considerably in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, as compared to solutions known from the state of the art.
Other aspects of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following descriptions when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.